Russia's military "weaknesses are being revealed" in Ukraine, says former commander of U.S. forces in Europe
The Russian Armed Forces are considered the fifth-largest military in the world but retired Lieutenant General Ben Hodges, the former commanding general of U.S. Army forces in Europe, said that Russia's invasion of Ukraine has exposed its military shortcomings.
"The weaknesses are being revealed in terms of logistics, terrible maintenance, the fact that they don't have sergeants like we do that can enforce discipline. That's where we're seeing the difference," he told "CBS Mornings."
Another thing Hodges said Putin underestimated was that the Ukrainian people were going to fight back.
"Ukrainians have never-ending resource called heart, a will to defend their own country, and the Russian invaders that are murdering innocent civilians, don't have that. That's the key difference right here is what Ukrainian soldiers and civilians, when they're doing versus what the Kremlin is sending into Ukraine," said Hodges.
The resistance from Ukrainians and the urban warfare and ground attacks from Ukrainian soldiers are causing Putin and Russia's military to change their strategy.
"As a result of this, the Kremlin has changed their plan to a war of attrition which means they're going to smash every town and city to create a terrible refugee flow, the weaponization of refugees, if you will, to put pressure on the Zelensky government and also on other European governments, who now have more than two million Ukrainian refugees that they're taking care of in Poland and other central and eastern European countries," he said.
Hodges, along with 27 foreign policy experts, signed an open letter supporting a no-fly zone over human corridors in Ukraine. Hodges said he signed the letter to help protect innocent Ukrainian people.
"I did sign that letter because I was so anxious, I am anxious to see us do something to stop the murder, the deliberate targeting of these civilians, innocent civilians," he said.